Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Chestertown, MD, November 8, 2005 — Washington College's Center for the Environment and Society presents "Tilting, Fogo Island: Rugged Landscape, Strong People, Fragile Architecture," a lecture by Robert Mellin, McGill University, Tuesday, November 15, at 7 p.m. in the College's Hynson Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

An associate professor of architecture at McGill University, Mellin will speak about the inextricable relationship of architecture, traditional technology, place, and environment in the village of Tilting, a remote, narrow spit of land eight miles off the north coast of Newfoundland.

Chartering new territory in the field of historic preservation, Mellin's research investigates a community's sustainable building ethic and explores the demands of living on a rugged North Atlantic island. He illustrates the significance of preserving buildings to conserve culture and to maintain distinct traditional occupations.

A recipient of the Winterset Award, a prestigious Canadian literary accolade, Mellin's Tilting: House Launching, Slide Hauling, Potato Trenching, and Other Tales from a Newfoundland Village (Princeton Architectural Press, 2003) has received praise from critics for its astounding photographs and descriptive writing style. According to one literary review, Tiltingis "part architectural text, part sociological time-travel" and offers "a quick escape to a far-off land of wholesomely honest and genuinely good-natured people leading simple, though often difficult, lives."